9 a.m. tomorrow! White House major announcement: Trump will deliver a nationwide speech on Iran.

In a statement reported by outlets including CCTV News, the White House said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver a nationwide address at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 1 (9:00 a.m. Beijing Time on April 2) and will provide “important updates” on the Iran issue.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made the above remarks on the social media platform X, but did not provide any additional information.

The upcoming Trump nationwide address comes as the U.S.-Iran war, which has been underway for a month already, enters a critical stage.

A few hours before the White House made the above announcement, Trump said that the United States will end its war with Iran within two to three weeks, adding that doing so would help bring down the currently soaring energy prices.

Trump said the current objective on the U.S. side is to “completely destroy Iran’s remaining military capabilities,” including missile facilities and related infrastructure, and said the United States may “leave Iran within two to three weeks,” but also did not rule out the possibility of reaching an agreement through negotiations before then.

On the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said the United States does not plan to continue shouldering the primary security responsibility in the future, and believes that shipping security should be handled by the countries that use the route, including France, on their own.

On the same day, Iran’s President Pezeshkian said Iran is willing to end the war, but only on the condition that its demands are met—especially assurances that it will not be subjected to aggression again.

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Hegseth said on Tuesday that the next few days will be the “decisive moment” of the war.

In recent days, Trump has repeatedly sent optimistic signals about U.S.-Iran peace talks. Iran, for its part, has repeatedly denied that it is negotiating with the United States, but confirmed that the two sides have exchanged information through a mediator.

On March 31 local time, Iran’s Foreign Minister Aragchi said the current situation is “not negotiations,” but rather an exchange of information via direct channels or “regional friends.” Iran received information from a U.S. representative, Witko v, but that does not mean negotiations have been initiated; the relevant exchanges are mainly “warnings or exchanges of viewpoints.”

While sending signals that it wants to stand down, U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iran have not stopped, and the United States is still increasing troop deployments in the Middle East—giving Trump potential options to expand the scale of the conflict.

On March 31 local time, according to reports from the U.S. side, thousands of additional U.S. service members are heading to the Middle East. Two U.S. officials said the “Bush” aircraft carrier was deployed that day and is scheduled to go to the Middle East together with three destroyers. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 sailors. Also, according to two anonymous U.S. officials, thousands of soldiers from the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division have also begun arriving in the Middle East.

Recent polling shows that Americans are dissatisfied with the war. A poll by Ipsos in recent days found that, influenced by the surge in fuel prices and widespread public dissatisfaction with the Iran war that Trump has waged, Trump’s approval rating has fallen to the lowest point since his return to the White House—only 36% of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance.

Since February 28, when the United States and Israel first launched strikes on Iran, international oil prices have surged. According to data going back to June 1988 traced by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), near-month Brent crude oil futures in March recorded a 64% monthly gain. U.S. crude oil futures rose by about 52%, recording the largest gain since May 2020.

Data from the price-tracking service GasBuddy shows that on Monday, the nationwide U.S. average retail gasoline price broke above $4 per gallon for the first time in more than three years.

(Originating source: Caixin/Securities Times)